Changing Face of Agriculture in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Abstract

The combination of water scarcity, declining arable land, poor soils, hyper-arid environment and projected climate change impact in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) constrain the local economic agriculture production to meet food demand of the current and continuing population growth. This has raised serious concerns about food security in food insecure but capital rich countries, and thus food security has emerged as a goal to achieve in the GCC countries. There are various options to achieve food security, including but not limited to local agriculture intensification using technological innovations, food import, outsourcing food production in eco-creditor countries and leasing farmland abroad, etc. Currently over 70 % food is imported by the GCC countries, the reasons being the large deficit between the current biocapacity (resources generated) and the ecological footprint of consumption (resources used). Such a high food import risks food security when there are political instabilities, wars and famine in countries from where the food is being imported. It is, therefore, important to increase local production to reduce food import dependency. In doing so local agriculture production may be at the forefront. Many view agriculture in the region comes at some environmental costs as all the countries use much more water in agriculture than what is renewable. The challenge of balancing water demand against supply is enormous in the GCC countries. All the GCC countries are currently at various levels of water stresses. In this chapter the emphasis is given on various options to increase local agriculture production and to examine their impact on the environment and to discuss alternate sound ways to achieve food security in the GCC countries.